The Fundie’s Handbook

10Oct09

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  That’s the way I see it, and with the steamroller momentum of birtherism, teabagging, speechies, marriage protection and the like, one can’t help but just want to take the easier road of rolling with it.  Even my home Province of Alberta, Canada is swinging to the right like never before, cutting GRS funding, refusing to add protections for gender identity to human rights legislation, passing a provision to ensure that children can be evacuated before tolerance / evolution / Shakespeare / anti-bullying discussions can take place, and now handing a byelection over to a party that tells the Progressive Conservatives that they’re not nearly far right enough.  So I say, hey, roll with it, nobody likes the humiliation of losing.  For those who’d like to join me, here’s a few pointers.

Filed under: Canada, Gender Politics, activism, media, musings, politics, religion   |  1 Comment

Alberta Teacher Fired For Gender Change

02Oct09

In early October of 2008, substitute teacher Jan Buterman was informed that he was being dropped from the teacher list and should not report to a scheduled class that day. Jan had spoken with the Deputy Superintendent at the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division No. 29 the previous June about his transition from female to male and that he would be returning to work after the summer break as Mr. Buterman — a minor change, since he had a mostly masculine gender presentation as it was. But in the start of October, the Archbishop of the Edmonton Diocese of the Catholic Church objected, and directed the school board to end his employment. The Archbishop felt that Jan “would create confusion and complexity with students and parents as a model and witness to Catholic faith values.” This from the organization that felt that the best way to deal with pedophile priests was to give them a free ride to a faraway diocese and a get out of jail free card… and have other pedophile priests cut a deal with the victims.

In Alberta, Canada, the Catholic School Board is publicly funded, and therefore subject to the same standards as any government entity. Nevertheless, the Archbishop and School Division felt so strongly about the need to fire him for transition — even though there is no quantitative reason to believe that students are in any way negatively affected by the presence of trans teachers — that they put it in writing.

Filed under: Alberta, Canada, Gender Politics, activism, religion, transgender   |  10 Comments

IAAF Official Wants to Sweep the Caster Semenyas Under the Rug

18Sep09

Sprinter Caster Semenya has been placed on suicide watch in the wake of leaked tests apparently showing evidence of intersexuality as well as the negative press she’s received. The news of this has prompted Lord Coe, a vice-president of the IAAF (which oversees the World Championships), to push for mandatory pre-emptive gender testing, to ensure that intersex athletes can be screened out before they arrive at the public stage.

Coe will be discussing this issue with the other IAAF vice-presidents on the federation’s advisory board and their recommendations will then be presented to the IAAF Council at its next meeting in November. There is a suggestion also that Coe may travel with Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, on his proposed forthcoming visit to South Africa to resolve the situation in which Semenya now finds herself.

Because it’s more humane to dash an athlete’s dreams out of sight than to possibly get egg on your face for doing it publicly.

Filed under: Gender Politics, media, medical   |  Leave a Comment

Tim Horton’s Sponsors Anti-SSM Event in the US

10Aug09

Update: That was quick.  Tim’s has withdrawn its sponsorship.

Original post:

Canadian donut franchise Tim Horton’s is sponsoring Marriage Day in Rhode Island.  This “Marriage Day,” as it turns out, is organized by the National Organization for Marriage, and in case there was any confusion, they loudly declare “This is a great opportunity to take a stand for marriage as God ordained it.”  As in, protecting heterosexuals from having to share the rights and privileges of marriage with same sex couples.

It’s very unlikely that there could have been any confusion about the event, as it’s being put on by an anti-gay organization and two churches involved in local lobbying against same-sex marriage, and features a worship music concert.

Change.org has already launched a petition on the matter.  At the very least, Tim Horton’s needs to clarify whether it actively opposes same-sex marriage.  Some Canadians might consequently want to reconsider spending their money there.

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Why “Sex Change” Surgery is Medically Necessary

08Aug09

Popular opinion has it that Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS, often popularly nicknamed “sex change surgery”) is a cosmetic issue and motivated by a simple “want” to be female or male, by someone who was not born as such. However, extensive medical research into transsexuality dating as far back as the 1920s and continuing through modern studies have demonstrated otherwise, and consequently, medical standards of care have included GRS as a necessary procedure for decades. In order to understand this, people will honestly need to put aside preconceptions for a moment — and also realize at the same time that most transsexuals would rather see a health system in which preventative and quality-of-life treatments were uniformly covered, rather than one in which someone’s eye surgery or tendon issues are not, thus creating fighting amongst people in simultaneous need.

The experience of being transsexual involves one’s entire identity. They attempt to hide who they are, living a lie that feels unnatural in order to live up to others’ expectations, the hiding driven by a spiralling sense of shame and self-loathing, until it becomes an experience many liken to “suffocating,” or vents itself in an explosion of frustration. Transsexuals are unable to explain why they feel that their gender should be something different than their birth sex, and sometimes spend years attempting to mask themselves, to “pass” as the gender that society expects them to be. This restricts their ability to function socially, emotionally, psychically, spiritually, economically (it’s hard to be productive while constantly feeling out of one’s element and/or “backwards”), maybe sexually, and leaves them often suicidal as a result. If this continues into later adulthood, often a crisis point is reached in which the person suffers a complete emotional collapse.

“Gender Dysphoria” is the name for this condition, and treatment follows the standards of care established by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH, formerly HBIGDA), which includes GRS. No less than the American Medical Association has stepped forward advocating the necessity of surgery and its coverage. In fact, like the AMA, the American Psychiatric Association and their Canadian counterparts support GRS as a medically necessary part of treatment. It was partly for this reason that the Ontario Human Rights Commission ruled in 2008 that that Province should restore coverage of the procedure.

Treatment of Gender Dysphoria encorporates surgical and endocrine intervention, because analytical and aversion therapies have historically proven damaging. As much as mainstream society would like to believe that electroshock therapy, anti-psychotic drugs or conversion (“ex-gay”) therapy would help transsexuals “just get over it,” modern medicine has realized that this approach simply does not work, and usually results in suppression, suicide or extreme anti-social behaviour. Aligning body to mind, however, has enabled transsexuals to become valued and successful people in society. There are, in fact, a few transsexuals who feel that they can live without having GRS, but they are the exception and not the rule.

Gender Dysphoria (sometimes called “Gender Identity Disorder,” or GID) is currently listed as a mental health issue, but ongoing study of both genetic ”brain sex” and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) show the possibility of some biological causal factor. In a study released in October 2003, UCLA researchers identified 54 genes in male and female mouse brains that led to measurable differences by gender, and went on to indicate the possibility of a brain being gendered differently to one’s physical sex. Studies of EDCs show another, possibly concurrent potential that exposure to chemicals that simulate hormone characteristics — particularly between the third and eighth week of pregnancy — can affect the signals sent out to determine psychological gender and biological sex, which appear to develop at different times during gestation. In all fairness, nothing is conclusively proven at this point, and there is not a lot of research money being put into further study, as most pharmaceutical companies do not yet see a payoff from doing so. But the anecdotal and observational data from EDC and brain studies of human and animal populations would tend to support an innate origin or component of transsexuality, and coincides with transsexuals’ convictions that they “just knew” that they were female (in the case of male-to-female transsexuals) or male (in the case of female-to-males).

There is more. Current legislation asserts that most forms of identification and legal documentation can only be changed to reflect one’s new gender after surgery has been verified. Without GRS, many pre-operative transsexuals experience severe limitations on employment, travel beyond Canada’s border, and treatment in medical, legal and social settings in which verifying ID is necessary. Prior to GRS surgery, transsexuals also face limitations on where they can go (i.e. the spa or gym, or anywhere that involves changing clothes) and difficulties in establishing relationships — as well as being in that “iffy” area where human rights are assumed to be protected, but have not yet been specifically established as such in policies and legislation. In hospitals, prisons and such, they are housed by physical sex rather than their gender identity, creating potentially risky situations, unless the authorities directly involved choose to keep them in isolation instead. And at the end of the day, without GRS surgery, one’s gender is always subject to being challenged or stubbornly unacknowledged by those who don’t realize that a transsexual’s gender identity was not a matter of choice. There is also an extremely high risk of violence faced upon the accidental discovery that one’s genitalia does not match their presentation.  No other supposedly “cosmetic” issue so completely affects a persons rights, citizenship and safety.

Transsexuality is not widely known or understood in mainstream society, and should not be confused with other aspects of the larger transgender (an umbrella term) culture. Although much sensationalism can be made of something like medical coverage of Gender Reassignment Surgery, the realities paint a very different story.

–
Take care,
Mercedes Allen
Alberta Transgender Resources: http://www.albertatrans.org/

Filed under: medical, transgender   |  Leave a Comment

Lu’s Womyn-Born-Womyn-Only Policy: The Ongoing Discussions

04Aug09

On July 6th, I noted the story of Lu’s: A Pharmacy for Women, operated by the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective (VWHC) , and noted how the Vancouver pharmacy’s policy to serve only “women who were born as women and live as women” excluded anyone transsexual or of transsexual history.  At that point, I’d recommended opening dialogue as a first step solution.  After some initial protests and media attention, that dialogue has begun, involving several advocates.  The outcome is still uncertain, but two things that are becoming apparent are that 1) both sides want to talk, and 2) no one wants to see a valuable resource for women close — they only wish to see only the reassessment of a bad policy.

Lu’s is currently screening people via a locked door, something that began after a public protest on the 11th.  A visual inspection and a short discussion must be passed before a person is allowed admittance to the pharmacy.  There is no signage about the womyn-born-womyn only policy — it is not needed in these circumstances.

Tuesday July 7th

On the day Lu’s opened, Shannon Blatt entered and expressed support for the concept of Lu’s and that she wished to move her prescriptions to the pharmacy.  A discussion of the women-born-women policy followed.

Filed under: Canada, Gender Politics, activism, feminism, transgender   |  1 Comment

REAL Women Selectively Oppose Human Rights?

01Aug09

Before being deposed by the current minority Conservative government, the federal Liberals began work on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, to be built in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As the building is underway and the Advisory Committee is being developed to oversee what is to be included, an organization called REAL Women of Canada has rushed to conservamedia to complain that 11 of the 16 advisors chosen have been linked to feminism and may also not be homophobic. We wouldn’t want womens’ rights and LGBT rights to be considered human rights, after all.

To this end, they’re pushing far right organizations to flood the museum administration and Conservative Government with letters and emails, “to take part in the consultations to ensure that a wider diversity of human rights concerns are included,” such as:

1. the rights of the unborn,
2. the rights of non-conformist family-oriented women and girls who don’t adhere to radical feminist ideologies,
3. the rights of men who have been marginalized while feminist special interest groups have taken center stage in Canadian policy.

Filed under: Canada, activism, feminism, politics, religion   |  2 Comments

Alberta GRS Diary and “Community”

10Jul09

(I have to apologize for mostly having to cover everything in a recap, rather than being able to cover everything as it happened.   It’s possible that as a consequence some of the links may have become invalid as media phases out old news pages or moves them to members-only sections.)

10,000 people turned out for the Edmonton Pride Week parade and festival on the square on June 13th.  This doubled last year’s attendance and proved so remarkable that almost no media outlets reported on the event.  This is how bittersweet in turmoil Alberta is these days: two months of introduction of obvious anti-LGBT policy (delisting of health care coverage of gender reassignment surgery, refusal to include gender identity / expression in human rights legislation,  Bill 44’s evacuate-children-from-school-if-queer-people-are-discussed provision,  making conservative religious leaders the consultants of choice on things like Aboriginal communities or oil sands development) turned people out in droves, and was about as remarkable as any other business as usual.  That’s the enigma of “community,” I suppose, and the way it comes together, vanishes and comes together again, all under the radar.

I’d been talking very negatively about the word “community” at the start of this year.  Very negatively.  The details aren’t necessary at the moment, other than to say I’d been very shaken by some threats I’d received from within said community.  I’d shut down my blog for all intents and purposes, removed myself from trans and activist networks, and nearly left advocacy altogether.

Then, on April 7th, ironically a day that many regions set aside as the Trans Day of Empowerment, the Alberta Government delisted Health Care funding for Gender Reassignment Surgery.   And Albertans (trans and cis) taught me a thing or two about “community.”

Filed under: Alberta, Canada, activism, media, politics, transgender   |  1 Comment

Canadian Minister Tries to Salvage a Little Pride

08Jul09

Canada’s Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, Diane Ablonczy, recently saw the Marquee Tourism Events Program (an economic stimulus package designed to encourage major tourism events such as the Calgary Stampede and the Montreal International Jazz Festival) taken from her portfolio and turned over to Industry Minister, Tony Clement.

The spin from the reigning Conservative government, of course, says that this is because Ablonczy is just too busy, while Clement, who is looking at forecasts of a serious surge in unemployment in an economic crisis, has nothing better to do than administer the program.

This all happened silently, a few weeks ago, without fanfare… shortly after Ablonczy announced a nearly $400,000 grant to the Toronto Gay Pride festival.

Filed under: Canada, politics, religion   |  1 Comment

The Prerequisites to “Woman”

06Jul09

A women-only pharmacy — according to reports, possibly the first of its kind in North America — is opening in Vancouver on Tuesday.  This pharmacy is designed to offer a comfortable, open environment, woman-specific information and non-judgmental counseling.  They are also planning to add a “resource centre behind Lu’s to get more health information from volunteers and peruse the library, which includes clipping files and Internet access…. a nurse practitioner …. a big couch at the back where visitors can join support groups for addictions and to stop smoking.”

I’d love to applaud this, I really would.  I know all too well the unpredictability of the biases of the person you seek medical information from, the inconsistent quality of that information, the questions about your body that you don’t dare ask anyone, the denial of reliable information on medications, the way that the health system and society in general have medicalized womens’ bodies.  But in the end, it doesn’t matter whether I applaud or not: my business is not wanted.  Lu’s: A Pharmacy for Women very specifically caters only to “any woman who was born a woman.”

This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Vancouver was also the site of the Kimberly Nixon v. Rape Relief battle.  During that controversial legal case, the trans community became largely estranged from the feminist and lesbian communities, and if this is any indication, not much has changed.

Filed under: Canada, Gender Politics, feminism, medical, transgender   |  1 Comment